DRESDEN, Germany — Bent at the waist, her back to the goal, Marta buried her face in her hands.

Her left-footed blast from six meters looked certain to be a winner, the goal to give Brazil’s women the Olympic gold medal and their first title at a major tournament. How, Marta asked afterward, did she not score?

Hope Solo, that’s how.

“I just remember Marta being point-blank cracking it, and Hope stretching out and getting a hand on it,” U.S. women’s soccer captain Christie Rampone said. “Seeing it out of the corner of your eye, yeah, you think it’s going in. It gave us that adrenaline going forward.”

Fired up by Solo’s highlight-reel save, the Americans claimed their second straight Olympic gold medal in Beijing. Brazil, eager to escape the shadow of its brilliant men’s team, went home bitterly disappointed, runners-up for the third straight time at a major tournament.

The Brazil-United States matchup tomorrow in the World Cup quarterfinals is their first since that 2008 Olympic final.

Brazil would seem to have the advantage. Marta remains the most dynamic player in the and Brazil had little trouble winning its group. The Americans, meanwhile, lost for the first time in World Cup group play and are in danger of making their earliest exit ever.

But the Americans still have Hope. Marta hasn’t scored yet against Solo in international play — and neither have any of her teammates. Solo has started the last four games vs. Brazil, with the U.S. winning each 1-0.

“There’s a rivalry, definitely,” Solo said. “We know each other, we respect one another, we’ve played on All-Star teams together. Yet we don’t speak a lot — which is the nature of the mystique of a goalkeeper against one of the top goal scorers in the world.”